Sick as a Kiwi! The inside story behind that big upset at Twickenham - REVEALED

On December 1 last year, Twickenham witnessed one of the most startling results in the history of Test rugby — England 38, New Zealand 21. The all-conquering All Blacks beaten on British soil as never before.

England have failed repeatedly to produce another performance like it or even remotely like it, their cherished Grand Slam disintegrating at Cardiff a few months later in the face of a monumental Welsh victory.

True to form, the All Blacks have resumed their traditional business of sweeping all before them.

VIDEO Scroll down to watch All Blacks jump off Eurostar to face England at Twickenham

Upset: Richie McCaw and Steve Hansen take in a rare taste of defeat against England last December

Huge win: The victory was one of England's best ever

The contrasting fortunes of the countries has left a thickening shroud of mystery over last year’s result, raising questions over the viral bug which hit the Kiwis that week. Now, after a long silence on what exactly happened, the full facts can be told.

Deb Robinson dealt with various occupational emergencies during her seven years as the All Blacks’ team doctor, but never anything like the one in London 12 months ago.

It began late on the night of Tuesday, November 27, and continued until 6am the following morning.

At least 20 players had been taken ill and confined to their rooms — three days before the England match. The full extent of the epidemic can be revealed today for the first time. The All Blacks, unbeaten in 20 Tests upon arrival in London for the last match of an exhausting season, lost to England by a record margin.

Back to their best: New Zealand have since got back to top form, and defeated France last weekend

Dr Robinson, speaking from a clinic in Christchurch where she is in private practice as a sports physician, said: ‘The first I knew about it was when one of the players came knocking on my door at 10pm. I got another knock on the door at 10.30. I thought it was the same player, but it was a different one.

‘Shortly after that a third player complained of the same symptoms. I knew then we were in trouble. I was up that night treating players until 6am, giving them medication to stop the vomiting and a lot of fluids.’

Since losing at Twickenham, New Zealand have played 12 Tests and won the lot. Head coach Steve Hansen praised England 12 months ago for their ‘outstanding performance’ and deliberately avoided using the midweek bug as an excuse.

Point to prove: The All Blacks are hard at work desperate to avenge last year's loss

Hansen still refuses to make it one, but before leaving Paris after the world champions’ backs-to-the-wall win over France, he admitted that the illness had been on a much larger scale than reported at the time.

‘At one stage we were worried whether we were going to be able to put a team out,’ he said. ‘The whole squad had it, but that’s still not an excuse. We were outplayed. I thought England deserved to win and still do.’

The norovirus causes, among other symptoms, nausea, diarrhoea and stomach pain.

‘We didn’t ever get a virological diagnosis, but this had all the hallmarks of the norovirus,’ said Dr Robinson. ‘We made the assumption based on the fact that it went through the team very strongly.

‘The players started getting sick late on Tuesday evening. The expectation was that this would take 48 hours to recover from. So if it had happened two days later, on the Thursday evening, we would have struggled to put a team together.’

No excuse: New Zealand Steve Hansen praised England's performance and failed to use the bug as an excuse

Dr Robinson does not cite the virus as the reason why the All Blacks’ tour came to a losing end. ‘It played a small part,’ she said. ‘It did affect our preparation.’

Skipper Richie McCaw, too, denied the sickness had taken a toll, saying at the time: ‘If we’d fallen away at the end, you might have said that, but we felt fine. We just struggled to get into the game.’

But others in and around the team take a different view. According to one source, scrum-half Aaron Smith had been too ill to eat all week until the Saturday morning. Further anecdotal evidence claims that his deputy, Pirri Weepu, existed for three days on a diet of toast and water.

The episode evoked memories of what happened to Sean Fitzpatrick’s All Blacks before the 1995 World Cup final in Johannesburg, when South Africa famously beat the odds-on favourites in extra time.

Itching: Stuart Lancaster and his team are desperate to prove last year's win over New Zealand was no fluke

New Zealand coach Laurie Mains, convinced his team had been nobbled, hired a private detective to investigate allegations that a mysterious waitress called Suzie had spiked the players’ tea and coffee at a restaurant less than 48 hours before the final.

Nelson Mandela’s former head of security, Rory Steyn, in charge of protecting the All Blacks during the tournament, has since claimed ‘there was no doubt that the All Blacks were poisoned two days before the final’.

Hansen, a detective who left the police to embark on a coaching career which included a punishing two-year apprenticeship in charge of Wales, knows an open-and-shut case when he sees one. ‘We don’t blame Suzie for what happened last year,’ he said with a laugh. ‘It was the norovirus.’

Change of plans: The All Blacks will no longer play four Tests in Europe in autumn

Dr Robinson, who resigned from her post with the All Blacks earlier this year, said: ‘This wasn’t food poisoning. The people at the Cardiff hotel where we’d stayed the previous week for the Welsh match were fantastic. And the people at our hotel in London were also fantastic.’

They might not have changed hotels, but they have changed their foreign policy, abandoning the concept of playing four Tests in Europe every autumn.

The All Blacks aborted provisional plans to play in Cardiff at the end of the month, a decision which has cost Wales £5million in gate revenue alone.